Trump: 'The experts are terrible'

Donald Trump may have a team of foreign policy advisers and others consulting him on policy, but that does not appear to have changed his opinion on the concept of relying upon so-called "experts."

“You look at what China’s doing in the South China Sea, and they say, ‘Oh, Trump doesn’t have experts,’" Trump told his audience in La Crosse, Wisconsin, in defending his proposals and past statements on foreign policy.

Trump continued, "Let me tell you, I do have experts but I know what’s happening. And look at the experts we’ve had, OK? Look at the experts. All of these people have had experts."

"You know, I’ve always wanted to say this—I’ve never said this before with all the talking we all do—all of these experts, 'Oh we need an expert—' The experts are terrible," he declared. "Look at the mess we’re in with all these experts that we have. Look at the mess. Look at the Middle East. If our presidents and our politicians went on vacation for 365 days a year and went to the beach, we’d be in much better shape right now in the Middle East.”

Trump's comments come after the Republican candidate sat down with his foreign policy advisers last week in Washington.

Referring to criticism that he could be better schooled on matters of foreign policy, Trump suggested he would do just as well, if not better than the current or past administrations without anyone providing input.

“They say, ‘Donald Trump needs a foreign policy adviser.’ Supposing I didn’t have one, and I have a lot of people," Trump said. "I met last week with a lot of people, all good people. But supposing I didn’t have one. Would it be worse than what we’re doing now?"

Despite having called them "terrible" moments earlier, Trump remarked, "the people, the experts, and I’m not knocking them, I’m just saying the world is a mess. We’ve helped make it a mess. We’ve totally destabilized the Middle East.”